Decor Can Make Kitchen Warm, And Not Just From Cooking

February 28, 1993|By Kitchen and Bath Ideas magazine.

For many families, the kitchen is the heart of the home. It's the place where the family gathers to eat, talk and share experiences. Creating a warm, welcoming kitchen involves more than the right look, however. You must create feelings of coziness, comfort, and security. That may sound difficult, but it's not. Following are some ways to put "heart" into your kitchen:

- Fit furnishings to people. One measure of homeyness is hospitality, the ability of a kitchen to be physically accommodating. Physical comfort promotes psychological comfort. Sitting areas should be furnished with an easy chair or two, so guests can vary their positions to maintain comfort. Arrange cocktail tables so your guests can retrieve a glass or coffee cup without undue stretching or scooting.

- Cater to the nesting instinct. Despite the common longing for large kitchens, there is such a thing as too much space. Vast space can jeopardize feelings of security. Often, the people who occupy a large room are left feeling insignificant and exposed. Before you settle on an overscale kitchen and family room combination, consider what puts your family at ease. Not all open floor plans are bad if consideration is given to creating cozy people places. Maybe you need an extended kitchen with defined areas for dining and relaxing. Those areas should be user-friendly-the furniture should be comfortable, and quiet conversation possible.

Small rooms, cozy nooks and alcoves cater to our nesting instincts in a way large rooms almost never do.

- Warm it up. Like space and furnishings, finishing materials on the floor, walls, counters and cabinets evoke emotional responses. Sleek materials such as metal, granite, marble and laminate are often regarded as cold, formal, even glamorous. Wood, tile, slate, brick and butcher block, however, evoke a warm and casual feeling.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use the formal materials. Their effect can be tempered by combining them with materials that have a warmer image. If you prefer granite counters, balance their stone-cold character with a wood floor. If you've selected laminate cabinets, warm them with wood trim, butcher-block countertops or tile backsplashes.

- Color also can enliven a kitchen. Greens, blues, warm reds, buttery yellows, teals and jewel tones are the kinds of rich hues often associated with at-home elegance and graciousness.

- Enclose for comfort. It's no accident that large windows and sliding glass patio doors are being supplanted by divided windows and sets of French doors. Architects, designers and homeowners are coming to the realization that large, undivided expanses of glass produce a feeling of being exposed. On the other hand, large windows and doors that feature muntins (narrow framing members that divide the panes of glass) seem to provide a reassuring sense of enclosure.

Those divided windows and French doors also create cottage-caliber charm.

- Highlight your interests. A kitchen, no matter how grand and stylish or how efficiently designed, is not likely to feel homey if it's devoid of signs of life. What gives a kitchen character and identity are telltale signs that real people-with their own tastes and preferences, interests and eccentricities-actually live there.

Heirlooms, collections, souvenirs, family photographs and other objects that are personally meaningful need to be on exhibit, where they can be seen and appreciated every day.